374 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



per cent., are found in the New World only, and of these 

 sixty-nine about fifty-three, or over forty-two per cent, of the 

 whole, are restricted to the limits above assigned. There 

 remain seventy-two species which we share with other por- 

 tions of the world. Of these forty are found in common 

 with Europe, four of them not occurring elsewhere. 



We have thirty species in common with the Himalayas of 

 Northern India, of which two are not found elsewhere. With 

 Northern or Eastern Asia we have thirty species in common, 

 and, taking the whole extent of Northern and Eastern Asia, 

 we have forty-six species in common out of the seventy-two, 

 showing a very decided preponderance in Asiatic forms, as 

 already referred to. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, Jan. 1, 1875. 



THE BLADDEEWOET A CAENIYOEOUS PLANT. 



Mrs. Mary Treat communicates to the New York Tribune 

 of February 1 some original observations upon the bladder- 

 wort ( Utricularia) , and its functions as a carnivorous species, 

 as in the case of 3arrace?iia,Drosera, etc. Bladderwort grows 

 abundantly in shallow ponds and swamps throughout the 

 Northern United States, and is characterized by the posses- 

 sion of numerous little bladders scattered among the leaves, 

 which were supposed to be used in some way for floating 

 the plant, especially during the flowering season. 



Mrs. Treat, however, had her attention called in the first 

 place to the fact that the bladder-bearing steins really sank 

 lowest into the water, and the subsequent detection of mi- 

 nute microscopical animals in the interior induced her to ex- 

 amine the subject in reference to a possible animal diet. She 

 has finallv satisfied herself that the true function of these 

 bladders is to entrap the various forms of animals, some of 

 them larva?, probably of dipterous insects and others, ento- 

 mostraca, such as Daphnia, Cyclops, and Cypris; and that, 

 once inside of the bladders, the latter constitute so many 

 little stomachs for their convenient digestion. JV. Y. Tri- 

 bune, Feb. 1, 1875. 



NEW SPECIES OF GLAUCIUM. 



In working over the refuse of the ancient silver-mines of 

 Laurium, in Greece, for the purpose of extracting the remain- 

 ing percentage of metal, a considerable amount of soil has 



